Eager ears filled Orndorff Theater on Thursday, Feb. 26, ready to learn how to become a successful leader.

Speaker Marvin Worthy was brought to Shippensburg University by the Leader@Ship program to enlighten students about the topic. Worthy, president and CEO of Worthy Consulting & Training, LLC, spoke from 5-6:30 p.m. about purpose and potential in relation to leadership.

Worthy’s presentation was full of advice about how to be successful in leadership roles. He emphasized that leadership can be very simple if you are willing to actively engage with other people from different walks of life. He also discussed that failure is an important part of the learning process.

Worthy said, “Failure is a good thing, as long as you fail forward.”

Worthy believes that “every young person is a promise that needs to be transferred into a person of purpose,” which is an important idea for leaders of organizations to consider. He noted that to be a successful leader you need PURPOSE. Worthy referred to PURPOSE as an acronym meaning: passion, responsibility, preparation, opportunity, service and effectiveness. He argued that if a leader takes these ideas into account that he or she will successfully fill his or her role.

Worthy has been a motivational speaker for 26 years and enjoys volunteering whenever he has the ability to do so. He also runs a Friday night youth program to keep children off the streets. Worthy’s passion for assisting young people is a product of his humble beginnings and growing up in a time of injustice. Worthy was pleased to be speaking at SU as an alumnus. He expressed that it has been a privilege to be able to pay it forward to the community.

As far as advice for students who want to gain more leadership experience, he suggested to take the time to identify personal areas of development and focus on improvement in those areas. He also suggested to find a leadership mentor. Worthy strongly suggested to “take advantage of programs like Leader@Ship.”

Leader@Ship is a student leadership program at SU provided through the university union & student activities (Ceddia Union Building) office. The mission of the program, according to the webpage, is to “develop students’ critical leader/follower capacities through theory-based learning, skill-building and practical experiences.”

The Leader@Ship program offers two different levels of leadership institutes. The program offers the Emerging Leaders Institute for first year students or students without leadership experience. This institute meets every Wednesday evening at 5 p.m. in Orndorff Theater. The program also offers an advanced leader institute designed for students with some leadership experience. The institute meets every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in Orndorff Theater. Both institutes require students to attend a combination of events, find a mentor and reflect on the experiences in a journal.

For additional information about the program, email leadership@ship.edu or Ann Wendle at 
aewendle@ship.edu.

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